Man-Made Monsters
by onlygoodideas
Summary: Touya wakes up in a hospital to overhear his father selling him to a stranger. The next thing he knows, he arrives at a facility that wants to turn him into an assassin. He's given a new name and is told that if he wants to get out of here alive he'll have to follow the rules. To make matters worse, his roommate is a feral boy with gloves locked onto his hands.


\The first sensation Touya's foggy brain could parse was pain. All over his body, a bone-deep ache that made every breath send a new flood of agony through him. He was no stranger to pain. For most of his life, it had been a familiar companion, almost like a dog that clung to his heels.

However, this was on a whole different level. This wasn't the result of a particularly hard punch or a burn from training. This was like someone had taken a potato peeler to his skin. Something was terribly wrong. He tried opening his eyes, but all he could manage was a weak fluttering. His limbs were likewise unresponsive, laying limply at his sides.

It might be an anesthesia, he thought distantly. Even his thoughts felt disconnected, floating above his head like they didn't belong to him. If it wasn't for the pain, so sharp and real, he would have thought he was still dreaming.

His first task was remembering how he had ended up here. He definitely didn't remember falling asleep, and the bed felt lumpy and foreign. That ruled out the possibility of this being a strange start to a normal day. He was somewhere different. Why?

It's probably a hospital. I hear beeping.

Even with his eyes closed, he could sense the air of a sickroom around him. For one thing, there was the tell-tale pinging of what he assumed was a heart monitor, keeping steady pace with his vitals. For another, it wasn't completely silent. He could hear the distant sound of life outside the room, of movement and people. His own home wasn't like that. Around the Todoroki household, everyone moved softly, afraid of one misstep drawing unwanted attention from his father.

Father. I bet this has something to do with him.

Touya's injuries usually did. His father called it training, but more often than not, it felt like punishment for existing. For daring to take up space as an imperfect creation. Maybe his father thought that if he beat him hard enough, he could reforge him into a shape that better suited Endeavor's ambitions.

Maybe that's what this pain was. Something had gone wrong during training, and he'd been injured badly enough to be taken to the hospital. It must have been pretty serious if his father had gotten someone else involved. Doctors would ask questions, want to know why his son was so burned, what he had been doing.

No one else was supposed to know about his powers, not until he was ready for his debut as one of his father's sidekicks. People with strange, supernatural abilities like them were rare, and usually turned over to the government. Endeavor was an exception, of course, allowed to operate freely as one of the police force's figureheads. That's what he wanted for Touya, too, but first Touya had to prove himself. That was why his powers were kept hushed for now, which meant usually Touya was left to suffer in silence, treating his own wounds in the bathroom and doing his best not to cause a fuss.

With the pain currently radiating through his body, though, he could believe that whatever had happened had been bad. Bad enough to land him here. Scattered details swam through his mind, memories of fire sprouting from his hands, the flames flickering from red to blue. Hotter than he'd ever been able to produce before, pouring from his body and making him feel like a living star. And then that exuberance melting into agony. His father shouting something, telling him to stop.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door sliding open. A conversation in media res filled the room, two pairs of footsteps accompanying it. The loud, gravelling one he recognized as his father, permanently stuck on the edge of a growl. The other was softer, closer to the hypnotic hiss of a snake.

"-deal with this as quietly as possible," Endeavor said. His voice held the tone Touya had come to associate with an impending session of grueling training. Frustrated, curt, one push away from toppling over the edge.

"I think he's a perfect candidate," the other man said. "If things go smoothly, we can have him enrolled in our program within a day."

"Good. I need him out of here before he wakes up and starts running his mouth," his father replied. "No one believes the cover story for a second, but without proof they can't do anything to me. That cannot change."

The last sentence sounded like a threat. Even in his sedated state, Touya felt a shudder run through his body. His father was accustomed to getting what he wanted, and right now it sounded like he wanted Touya's silence.

If his body was working, he would have screamed out that he didn't know anything. His memory was messed up, so there was nothing to tell, and even if there was, he'd always been an obedient son. He'd never given his father reason to hate him. That had never helped any, though.

"I'll take care of everything," the other man assured. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, sir."

The door opened and shut again. For a minute, Touya thought he was alone. But then he heard his father sigh, the groan of a chair pulled across the floor to his bedside.

"It might be kinder to kill you here and now," his father mused, "rather than sell you off to those people."

Touya couldn't puzzle out what that might mean through the haze of pain and drugs. His father was talking about selling him. The idea of his father giving up anything he thought belonged to him was ridiculous.

So was the idea that anyone would want Touya. Endeavor had made sure he'd understood that from the time he was walking.

"I know you'll come out on top, though. You're a fighter," his father said.

He felt pressure on his head. If he hadn't been so dazed, he might have realized it was his father ruffling his hair. Then again, he couldn't recall a single instance of Enji Todoroki showing such fatherly affection at any other point in his life, so he couldn't be blamed for not having anything else to compare it to.

Another squeak as the chair pushed back. A final thud as the door slid open. A pause.

"This is for the best. Goodbye, son."

The resounding clack as the door closed, separating him from his father.

Touya was left with nothing but pain and confusion, slowly swirling around in his head until he finally, mercifully, sank back down into sleep.


End file.
